Joanne Dixon

Everyday Erinyes #104

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 6:21 pm Politics

Dec 082017

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. Even though there are many more which I can’t include. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

So, we’ve talked before here about deported veterans (“deported veterans” – doesn’t that just physically hurt to read or say?) But we haven’t talked about, because I didn’t realize it could happen until I received an email this week, deporting people who are essentially active duty military.

Among those who watched the smoke rise from the World Trade Center into a perfect blue sky on 9/11[/2001] were an Army Reserve officer on the cliffs at West Point and a 7-year-old undocumented immigrant on the street in Queens.

The officer, Major Margaret Stock, wondered if the attacks might have been prevented if only the military had enough personnel fluent in foreign lamguages, such as those spoken by the plotters. So she started designing and creating the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program (MAVNI). It would offer expedited citizenship to immigrants speaking certain critical languages. It would also make the same offer to physicians, nurses, and dentists (of which the military has been pitifully short for a long, long time.) The point was to make sure, in Major Stock’s words, “we have enough people to protect the country.”

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which began in June 2012, opened the pool for MAVNI to these immigrants, better known as “DREAMers.” When his mother heard about the program on TV, it was 2016, and the seven-year-old boy from Queens was now 21. He was immediately interested. His native language (Punjabi) qualified him, and he passed the language test fluently. He signed the contract, and he took the oath.

“I, Harminder Saini, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”

Saini was now a soldier. The only thing missing was his background check.

But the Army had tripled the number of background checks for MAVNI without hiring enough checkers to actually do them.

Saini is now 23 – still prepared to ship out at a moment’s notice. He’s been reading from a list that James Mattis gave to a TV interviewer, and going to the gym a lot to stay fit.

But in September, Saini and hundreds of other waiting MAVNI DREAMers learned

…that the president to whom they were all sworn to obey had revoked DACA. The termination was to take effect in six months, at which time the MAVNI DREAMers who were not yet in basic training and on the way to naturalization would be in jeopardy of being deported from the country they had sworn to protect.

Back in September, there was some talk about a bipartisan effort led by Lindsay Graham and Dick Durbin to retore the DREAM program by act of Congress. But so many things seem to have gotten in the way since them … has anyone heard anything lately?

Certainly there’s at least one Congressman, I am thinking particularly of a certain dentist from Arizona (who incidentally never served himself) who will gladly torpedo any such effort if he can.

Congress also has characters such Rep. Paul Gosar, a former “Arizona Dentist of the Year” who has proposed legislation barring what he calls “DACA aliens” from serving in the military. Gosar himself has never served, though the armed services have long suffered a shortage of dentists, as MANVI seeks to address.

“I agree with @POTUS that it’s time to get rid of #DACA!” Gosar tweeted on September 5, making sure to append a DDS to his name.

Tell you what, Dear Furies, how about you, Alecto, go after Durbin and Graham and – well, the old saying it put a flea in their ears, but I am thinking more in terms of putting a bee where the sun doesn’t shine, to really get them moving on this. Megaera and Tisiphone, you get hold of Gosar, and find out who the rest are, both in the House and in the Senate, who feel this way (we all know these people are big on feeling, since they don’t think at all), and – apply some compulsory re-education.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 HERE.

Everyday Erinyes #103

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 8:42 am Politics

Dec 022017

You may remember from last August a small protest in a little place called Charlottesville, VA. And that a car ran into a group of unarmed peaceful protesters, injuring 19, and killing one – Heather Heyer. You may even remember that a comment made on Facebook about a news story at the time went viral because it was so ugly.

“Hahahaha love this, maybe people shouldn’t block roads,” Conrad Lariviere commented on a news story noting “one dead, 19 injured.”

If so, you’ll be happy to know that Officer Lariviere has been fired from the Springfield (MA) Police Department.

“It was determined that Officer Lariviere impaired the operation of the Springfield Police Department or its employees and discredited the department,’ Commissioner [John] Barbieri explained.

The mayor of Springfield agreed. “I stand by and agree with Commissioner Barbieri’s decision to fire Officer Conrad Lariviere over his insensitive and uncalled for Facebook remarks,” Mayor Domenic Sarno stated.

But you’ll likely be less happy when you hear that the police union wants him reinstated. And one City Councilor agrees with the union. The union statement includes “His point was that such disorderly behavior has serious consequences, and both sides of the dispute bore responsible for the disruptions,” which sounds to me sort of like “His point was that no matter how peaceful you are, if someone doesn’t agree with you, it’s open season on you.”

The City Councilor has a different viewpoint. His beef is that there is another office on the force who deserves to be fired even more, but hasn’t. And, actually, he is right. The problem is, with this other officer, the city’s hands are tied. The union contract includes what is essentially a 90-day statute of limitations, and this officer’s misdeeds were not discovered within that time period. So the Department is forbidden by the contract from taking action, other than suspending him for 60 days and demoting him to the records department.

Alecto, what I think is that, when the union contract comes up for renewal (which I hope is soon), the Department needs a tougher and better negotiator. And smarter. Better able to foresee contingencies.

Mohammed Suleiman is a six-year-old boy who carries Down syndrome 21. He is sufficiently developmentally disabled that he is not able to speak. Yet, a substitute teacher called the police and filed a report that the child is a terrorist, because he kept repeating the words “Allah” and “boom boom boom.”

If you listen to the video on the site, you may also gather the teacher said the child “sexually harassed” her. Right.

The Police Department is no longer investigating the matter of the report. I personally would have thought that filing a false police report was a crime and that they ought to be gathering information to charge the teacher, but I do realize that some things are challenging to get legal evidence for.

Child Protective Services are also still investigating I hope that means they are investigating the teacher, who is obviously so dangerous she should not be around any children ever, and not the child’s family. But one never knows.

Megaera, if no one is investigating the teacher, maybe you can. And, if they are, maybe you can help.

There are two other incidents I want to give some attention to without a lot of detail. The first – which comes with a strong TRIGGER WARNING – is that of the little girl, aged 10 years, who was bullied to the point that she hanged herself. A few more details are available, but some are also missing. It happened in Colorado, in Aurora, and her name was Ashawnty Davis and she was adorable.

The second incident – well here’s the title: Alt-righter insists his ‘Pepe the Frog’ hot sauce isn’t racist — it’s meant to mock people with autism. And, you know, that’s exactly what he said.

“So it was originally intended to be a chicken-tendie sauce, like, you know, ‘These autistic kids go crazy about chicken tendies.’ So it’s a spicy tendie sauce. But it’s actually a very tasty hot sauce.”

Matt Furie’s attorneys have sent this dude a cease and desist order, which he intends to ignore, because “He never trademarked it.” No, you jerk, he didn’t need to trademark it, because he HOLDS THE COPYRIGHT. And he has the books to prove it. He’s not required to register the copyright in order to hold it (although registering it give one a few additional rights, so he probably did.)

Tisiphone, in between dealing with bullies, I realize it’s going to be somewhere between difficult and impossible to get some sense into this dude. But maybe you can make him cease and desist.

Late update: Sarah Sims charges DROPPED.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 HERE.

Everyday Erinyes #102

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 9:33 pm Politics

Nov 242017

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. Even though there are many more which I can’t include. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

I considered making this a Special “Are You Expletive Kidding Me?” Edition, but decided it might trivialize one of the stories, which I didn’t want to do. But really, what else can one make of this?

A nine-year-old student at Ocean View Elementary School in Norfolk, VA, was getting bullied, and her mother called AND emailed the school administration multiple times with no response. In fact, she has still had no response, and she started trying in September.

In order to provide evidence, she put a recorder into her daughter’s backpack. She hoped to prove, both that the child was being bullied, and that nothing was being done by the staff to put a stop to it.

What happened was that the recorder was discovered by the school, the child was moved to a different classroom, and a month later the Mom was charged by the Norfolk Police with a felony and a misdemeanor.

Sims was charged with felony use of device to intercept oral communication and misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The felony charge could carry five years in prison.

Yes, the mom has an attorney (and is she pissed!) She believes the charges are a stretch and will not hold up in court. But she also believes

“We are at the very early stages of this, but even at the early stages I think the community needs to know that this is happening, because any parent out there that is sending their child to school now could be at risk for something that happened to Sarah,” [attorney Kristin] Paulding said.

I wouldn’t be surprised if she also believes there are a lot of parents in the community who will NOT be happy about this turn of events. I know I wouldn’t.

They are, incidentally, claiming that “electronic devices are not allowed in the classroom.” This is a fourth grade classroom. I’d also be upset as a parent if my fourth grade child did not have access to a computer in the classroom.

Megaera, Sarah Sims’s preliminary hearing is set for January 18th. She seems to have a good lawyer, but you might want to be there anyway.

Then, in Buffalo Township, PA, an elderly couple were forced to file a lawsuit against both the township police and their insurance company when “trained drug inspectors” decided that their hibiscus plants were actually marijuana. To make it even more surreal, the hibiscus WERE IN BLOOM AT THE TIME. (I’m not a “trained drug inspector,” whatever that is but I do know a hibiscus flower when I see one (and I give the Cramers points for being able to get them to thrive in Buffalo Township, which is north of Pittsburgh.)

Edward Cramer, 69, and his wife, Audrey Cramer, 66, were quietly enjoying their golden years this fall when they called their insurance company about a neighbt was the poor’s tree that had fallen on their property. That’s when things started going wacky.

The insurance company, Nationwide Mutual Insurance, sent its local agent, Jonathan Yeamans, to the Cramers’ place, but Yeamans apparently had more than insurance claims on his mind. According to the lawsuit, Yeamans surreptitiously took photos of flowering hibiscus plants in the backyard, then sent them to local police as evidence of an illegal marijuana grow.

So the police got a warrant, came to the house, pounded on the door, arrested Mrs. Cramer in her underwear and barefoot, handcuffed her, made her walk to the patrol car over gravel, kept her in it for four and a half hours – and then Edward got home to be met by police with guns pointed at him, arrested and thrown into the patrol car with Audrey.

After an hours-long search, finding, of course, no marijuana, they seized the hibiscus plants, labelling them “tall, green, leafy suspected marijuana plants.”

Oh, and just as the frosting on the cake (it would certainly frost me), the Cramers got a letter from Nationwide that if they didn’t get rid of the pot, their policy would be cancelled. (I’d bet my butt that they could find a better insurance company by standing in a business park and throwing a rock, but having to look is annoying.)

Alecto, the Cramers are too old for this noise. Please help in any way you can.

Living in the Washington DC metro area, Beverly Smith is – was – the mother of Alonzo Smith, who, two years ago, aged 27, was killed by special police at the Marbury Plaza Apartment Complex in Washington, D.C.

“Special police? What the – er, what does that mean?” Well, that was the part that tempted me to think, “Are they kidding me?” Special police are people who are employed by a private firm – in this case, Blackout Investigations and Security Services – and contracted to businesses like apartment complexes to keep order. They can’t actually make arrests, but they can detain people for the real police to arrest, and they are armed. Perhaps the best description of their status is as a privately owned, for profit police force. Sort of like Blackwater is a privately owned, for profit army.

In this particular story, the fact that they are armed is not an issue, unless they scared Alonzo half to death with them. Alonzo appears to have died from injuries inflicted by a special police kneeling on his back while putting him in a chokehold. His neck appears to have been broken at about C-2 (and there was blood there). CPR incorrectly performed did not help. The Washington, D.C medical examiner ruled it a homicide.

A grand jury was convened in December 2015. In June of this year the attorney general returned a non-indictment. It is in the front of Beverly’s mind because this month was the second anniversary of his death.

Like Philando Castile, Alonzo worked in a school (he was a teacher’s aide at Accotink Academy in Springfield, VA), and, like Philando, he was loved and looked up to by students, a number of whom he had assisted to find direction. Besides Beverly, he was survived by two sisters and three children of his own.

Many of Alonzo’s students spoke at his funeral. They shared that, to them, Alonzo was more than just a teacher; that he was one of them. He understood what they were going through.

“My son had touched all of these children’s lives,” Beverly says. “Even on a mural, [and] on some of the letters, the kids would say, ‘Mr. Smith, we wanna be good for you. We miss you. We love you, Mr. Smith.'”

Tisiphone, I don’t know that you can achieve much justice here. But maybe you can help strengthen Beverly in her community service work

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted Monday to Care2 HERE.

Everyday Erinyes #101

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 8:16 am Politics

Nov 182017

Less than two months ago, I included a story about a church leader who was fleecing the state by telling members to file fraudulent unemployment claims in order to keep their “contributions” up. Well, this lovely church leader is back in the news again. This time it’s for kidnapping.

North Carolina’s social services laws cite “family preservation,” so as to prevent “unnecessary placement of children away from their families.” Yet, many children have been taken from their families and put into the custody of church members. Thus far, three single mothers have come forward to allege a county court clerk bypassed the foster system so that church members were able to obtain custody of their children, despite a judge calling the conduct inappropriate.

A child advocate who visited the church to ensure that two foster children were safe was surrounded by members after “Pastor” Jane Whaley shouted from the pulpit, “You are here to cause strife!” and called her “wicked.”

“One thing that is confusing for people in the community is how these children can be so well-behaved and so well-dressed if things are so bad,” said John Huddle, who lost his children after be severed ties with the church. “But the clothing can cover the bruises and the smiles can hide the hurt.”

Hanky alert.

Alecto, you’ve been on this case – better get reinforcements.

I’ve addressed this issue before, but it isn’t going away.

A photo of several deported veterans went viral over the weekend as the U.S. celebrated Veterans Day on Saturday. The photo was taken by photojournalist Herika Martinez for the Agence France-Presse news agency.

The photo depicts a group of several Mexican men who served in the U.S. military in order to become citizens, but were denied and deported. The soldiers protested on Memorial day this year in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Apparently, there are about 230 people who served in the U.S. military and expected to gain citizenship, but didn’t.

The article also states, “Serving in the military does not automatically confer citizenship….” Well, dammit, it should! Just think about this phrase:

Tisiphone, what kind of person can make sense of that?

This next story may need a hanky alert too – it did for me -you may be a little tougher.

MS-13 is, according to Wikipedia, “an international criminal gang,” which originated in the 1980’s in Los Angeles and spread. Though El Salvadorean origin predominates among its members, a guy named Donald Trump has been leaning on them as a boogey-man to tout his wall. Ed Gillespie also made use of the name in his campaign, fortunately to somewhat less effect.

There is a prison in Massachusetts, the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, which is owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and operated by the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department, yet is somehow also being used by ICE. Currently there is an activist incarcerated there named Martin Gottesfeld, who is awaiting federal trial on hacking charges related to Justina Pelletier and her treatment by Boston Children’s Hospital. (Martin was with Anonymous. It made quite a splash at the time. I don’t know why he is still awaiting trial on charges from 2014, but he is.) Martin has been interviewed by and is still in touch with Ryan Grim, who is now with The Intercept (he was previously with the Huffington Post), and provided Ryan with this story.

A few months ago, some members of MS-13 were moved into Martin’s unit.

“When they first came in the unit, all of us were like, ‘Oh shit, MS-13, there goes the neighborhood,’ but they turned out to be model inmates,” he said. Beyond their so-far-unsuccessful attempts to attend church, he said, they’ve been unfailingly kind and rule-abiding. Many of them, he said, seem to have been swept up in broad conspiracy charges. “Contrary to the public impression that’s been painted by the Tucker Carlsons of the world, these guys are ideal inmates, they wanna go to church, don’t cause trouble,” he said. “I don’t think these are bad guys, not the killer rapists they’re being portrayed as.”

The incident which prompted Martin to bring this up to Ryan happened at breakfast.

Breakfast starts early in the BS-1 unit, Gottesfeld told The Intercept in a phone interview, and the elderly man was “head food-runner,” responsible for handing out trays. Each inmate is entitled to a single tray of food, but one young, white inmate and his friend grabbed a second.

The elderly man chased after the younger fellow and his friend, demanding the tray back; if any prisoner takes a second tray, that means somebody else won’t get breakfast. “The white kid dropped the tray and went to swing at the old guy, and that’s when the MS-13 guys just descended,” Gottesfeld said.

They rushed to the defense of the 72-year-old food-runner, and, granted they were not gentle with the young punk, when he was led out in handcuffs, he was in good enough condition to yell at them about how Trump is going to close the border and kick the Mexicans out.

The final irony, Gottesfeld added, is that the elderly man is a Republican and a Trump supporter, “but the nicest guy you could meet.”

Megaera, please make sure that neither the 72-year-old nor his defenders, nor Martin, are hurt, physically or with any loss of privilege, as a result of this incident. Thank you.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 HERE.

Everyday Erinyes #100

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 8:54 am Politics

Nov 112017

This was a week when my attention was drawn to two subjects – water, and eminent domain. Probably everyone here knows who Chase Iron Eyes is, but just in case there are any senior moments, let me say “Standing Rock.”

Well, Chase Iron Eyes is now awaiting trial for inciting a riot, the riot being all the protests at Standing Rock over months and involving hundreds of people. He has asked that this video be shared. It goes through many of the events leading up to this charge.

There has been one recent victory, and I will quote Chase’s email (emphasis mine):

A North Dakota judge has ruled that my legal team is entitled to substantially more evidence from the North Dakota State Prosecutor’s office than has been forthcoming in other water protector cases. We will be able to take sworn testimony and demand documents from Energy Transfer Partners and their private, militarized security firm, TigerSwan.

The timing on this ruling is important for all environmental protectors. 84 members of Congress—nearly all Republicans—recently sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions encouraging him to invoke the domestic terrorism statute to prosecute fossil fuel protesters. These attacks on our fundamental constitutional rights, spearheaded by Donald Trump and parroted by congressional shills of Big Oil, should deeply concern all citizens who value our right to speak freely and demonstrate.

The email provided the link to the petition to sign. Or you can text as described in the video to get the petition link.

Related, because fracking threatens people’s water (as well as the climate) is this case which Bold Alliance and landowners are fighting in Virginia, against the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipelines.

From the email, written by one of the landowners –

In an extraordinary move, more than 300 Virginia landowners have been sued in federal court by Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC, which is seeking authority for a “blanket taking” of all of these Virginia families’ land via eminet domain for this private company’s for-profit fracked gas pipeline.

And on Monday evening, it happened.

At my family’s farm, we were officially served with this lawsuit that seeks to take our land through eminent domain for the proposed Mountain Valley fracked gas pipeline.

The emotions are raw and real; jumping from anger to sadness to fear. Landowners across the region are wrestling with feelings of disempowerment.

We’re furious that a *private*, *for-profit* company has been handed over the power of eminent domain to drag our family to court seeking to seize a section of our land permanently for a risky, unnecessary pipeline that threatens our water and our climate — and later on, even sell that piece of our land to another private company!

I think everyone here knows what I think of eminent domain, so I see no need to stumble around looking for exotic insults and imprecations now.

Instead I’ll move on to another eminent domain case – this one in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Now, gentrification is not new to Atlanta. In fact, the point of this story is that the neighborhood now facing it is the last working class black neighborhood in the city.

The article in the Atlanta Black Star includes a roughly 15-minute documentary clarifying the history of black residential areas in Atlanta. I won’t embed it due to its length, but I’ll recommend it.

The Reader’s Digest version of the current situation is this:

The process the city is attempting to use to take ownership of the house is known as “eminent domain”— the power for governmental entities to take private property for public use. The city claims it needs the house, along with others on the same block in the Peoplestown neighborhood, in order to build a park and pond that will help with street flooding.

Meanwhile, community members suspect the flooding is being used as a pretext to facilitate private development in the neighborhood.

This process is replicated throughout the US. If successful, eminent domain could become the newest tool that local and state governments could use to accelerate the gentrification and displacement that is already impacting low-income Black and Brown communities. QQ

Doesn’t it all sound familiar?

A 20th century author of detective stories featuring running casts of detectives in three Southern California Police Departments had one of her characters say that all crime was rooted in one or both of two failings – stupidity and cupidity. These crimes (and they are crimes – the fact that they are being done using the courts does not change that) are clearly due to the latter. Dear Furies, the Greeks did not assign one or more of you to pursue criminals and crimes of greed, so you will need to divide up the assignments yourselves. I have confidence in you.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 HERE.

Everyday Erinyes #99

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 10:40 am Politics

Nov 042017

I think I may be close to breaking the code as to how people who are obviously racist can say things like “I’m absolutely not racist in the very least,” and appear to believe it.

It’s kind of like the Dunning-Kruger effect. They don’t really understand what “racist” means, but they know it’s something bad. So they think, “I’m a good person, so I can’t possibly be racist, because then I’d be a bad person.”

Case in point: Joe Briggs, candidate for City Council in Suwanee, Georgia. Technically his tweets have been “anti-semitic” rather that “racist,” but that doesn’t differentiate the sentiments, only the target group. Most people who are the one are also the other. Probably misogynist, too. Here are some:

[A]t least the Nazis assimilated and contributed to US society.

Zionists in Israel far worse than anything described in Mein Kampf. Get over it.

[G]et the Jews out of the White House and out of POTUS’ ear.

I particularly note the statement that Nazis have “assimilated and contributed to US society” and its implication that Jews have not. Mr. Briggs, Jews have assimilated so well into US society that you probably have no idea how mant contributions they have made because you don’t recognize the contributrs as Jews. Nazis, on the other hand, have mostly contributed bigotry and hate. Well, of course, no one is useless. They can always serve as horrible examples. But I’m sure that’s not what Mr. Briggs had in mind.

Mr. Briggs thinks that his political opponents are “digging up dirt on him to distract from their own failures.” Well, distractions are not unknown in politics. But in this case, the “dirt” that they are “digging up” is absolutely real.

Megaera, maybe you can do some explaining to him.

Meanwhile, in Connecticut – oh, by the way, if you are eating right now, or just finished eating, or about to eat, you may want to skip this section until later. Seriously. Now, where was I? Oh, yes, in Connecticut. At the University of Hartford. Where there was a – well, let’s say a failure to communicate. Between roommates.

One of the young ladies (need I say the white one?) complained of her roommate “posting Snapchat videos of [her] sleeping and making fun of [her]snoring.” Oh, yeah, that’s TOTALLY a reason to stick her toothbrush up your – ahem.

She also “spit … in her coconut oil, put … moldy clam dip in her lotions, rubb[ed] used tampons on her backpack, … and so much more….” all in order to get the woman she called “Jamaican Barbie” to move out of the room.

The victim. whose name BTW is Jasmine, was really only aware of the perp turning off the lights when she left and Jasmine was still in the room. This did make her feel unwelcome. She had no idea the perp was doing all this until it got bragged about on Instagram. She had had “extreme throat pain” but did not, and does not, know what might have caused it. (Personally I think it might have been the spit, which clearly must have contained snake venom.)

The perp has been arraigned on charges of breach of peace and criminal mischief, and, if the West Hartford police get their way, a charge of intimidation based on bigotry or bias. She was also ordered to stay away from the college campus (reasonable, since she’s been expelled.)

Tisiphone, this does sound like one for you.

Now, from the “bad news is good news” department, a seasoned legal journalist who also happens to be a personal friend of James Comey has posted a thread on Twitter explaining why Trump’s delusional demands for the DOJ to investigate Hillary Clinton actually represent a tribute to the independence and integrity of our justice system. This journalist is named Benjamin Wittes, and here are a couple of excerpts from his Twitter feed:

It’s strong enough that he can fulminate all he wants about investigating Clinton and still Mueller does his job, and the FBI does its job, and the men and women of the DOJ do their jobs, and none of their jobs, as our democratic polity has determined them, is to fulfill his undemocratic ambitions to loose investigators on people he doesn’t like….

And

It’s a stunning statement of presidential constraint: A president actually saying that he aspires to corrupt interference with law enforcement and can’t pull it off. Let it warm your heart. It certainly warms mine.

Alecto, it’s been so since the Constitution was adopted. Keep it so.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 HERE.

Pithy Progressive #9

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 12:26 pm Politics

Oct 312017

I made a comment on the Bill Maher lead article Saturday that I agree the way we are tring to appeal to large groups of voters isn’t working well, but I disagree with what we need to do about it. My feeling is less exposition and more story is what we need. This email from Elizabeth Warren perfectly illustrates how powerful story can be.

One of my heroes is running for Congress

Almost 20 years ago — early in the fall term of 1999 — I’d been covering an especially tough topic in my bankruptcy class.

You know that deer-in-the-headlights look on a CEO’s face when they can’t answer a question in a Senate hearing? That was my whole room of students that day.

A few students had looked a little shaken when they left class, so I wasn’t surprised when one of them stopped by my office later in the day. “Hi, I’m Katie Porter. You were really hard on me today.” I thought she was about to start complaining about how tough the work was, but she didn’t pause a beat. Instead, she said, “and I just wanted to come by to say please keep it up. I want to learn this, so don’t let up on me.”

I didn’t let up — and neither did Katie. Katie became an expert in the complex law of bankruptcy, and we worked together for years studying why millions of American families were in so much financial trouble. She became a law professor herself out in California — and in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, California Attorney General Kamala Harris appointed her to be California’s top consumer watchdog — fighting to hold the big banks accountable and help Californians who lost their homes.

Several months ago, I had breakfast with Katie. We were all still reeling from the election. After talking about her kids, Katie said, “This is terrible. The banks, they’re gonna let them go at it again. They’ll roll back the regulations on pollution, poison our children.” And then she said, “Elizabeth, I’m thinking about running for office.” And I said exactly one thing in return, “If you run, I will be there every step of the way.”

Katie lives in Orange County, California — in a district that Hillary Clinton won by five points last November. The Republican Congresswoman who holds that seat has voted with Donald Trump 97.8% of the time this year — including votes to repeal health care for millions of Americans, defund Planned Parenthood, and gut the rules on Wall Street.

Sending Katie to Congress in this winnable district would put us one seat closer to taking back the House in 2018. And Katie will give us another powerful voice in Washington who will stand up to the big banks and powerful corporations and fight for women, students, seniors, immigrants, and working people in her district and all across this country.

I’ve seen Katie’s commitment and grit up close and personal. I’ve seen her determination to tell the story of a rigged game. And I’ve seen her put it all on the line to fight for what she believes in.

Thanks for being a part of this,

Elizabeth

Doesn’t this just make you want to run out and vote for Katie?

Cross posted to Care2 HERE.

Everyday Erinyes #98

Posted by Joanne Dixon at 10:51 am Politics

Oct 282017

Well. I promised to keep everyone posted as the Sherin Mathews case developed, and it has. Yes, her body was found. Yes, it was confirmed to be hers through dental records. Yes, her father changed his story. He now says she choked on the milk he was giving her, and that she died, or he thought she died. He has been formally chsrged with “injury to a child.”

The Indian people and the Indian government is very interested in this case, but they are less interested in the death than in the adoption process, which makes sense. The orphanage from which she was adopted is no longer functioning, but the former owner says “The child had no problem when she was here, neither in drinking milk nor in eating.” Also, “We loved her laughter. She was a smart child.” The adoption was handled through an agency, Holt International, under the supervision of the government’s Central Adoption Resource Authority, which says that due procedures were followed, including background checks. India’s External Affairs minister has formally requested the Women and Child Development Minister to investigate the adoption.

And, already, people with similar names are being harassed on social media. Sigh. Well, Tisiphone, it’s still yours.

In a week in which we are still discussing Harvey Weinstein, in a week in which bill O’Reilly has again raised his ugly head (the upper one), this time to complain to God, and of course Donald Trump’s proclivities are being discussed, this story is still going to cause facepalms.

In Chicago, at a massage parlor called Therapy for Everybody, the operations director and lead therapist, Anthony Winters, raped a client. The client reacted in shock, which caused the therapist to nopologize. Why did he do it?

“because he thought she was physically attractive.”

You can fill in the acronyms. Go ahead. As many as you like.

Well, he is being charged with criminal sexual assault, but is apparently not locked up, because the prosecution has asked the judge to ban him from working as a masseur while awaiting trial. This will probably be another one to follow up. Let’s see – Alecto, since rape culture appears to be unceasing, how about you look into it more deeply.

And then, there’s this.

Montanans are debating the motives of two candidates allegedly running for the United States Senate seat currently held by Democrat Jon Tester.

“James Dean” says he is running for the Republican nomination.

“Sarah Dean” says she is running for the Democratic Party nomination.

I am not making this up.

William James Dean, who currently refers to himself as James Dean, “filed to run for president in California under a different name, Daniel Lane Dean, the name that appeared on his Air Force Academy diploma, and his Hawaiian state bar exam, and a divorce record that shows him being served dissolution papers while working for the Judge Advocate General Corps at Guantanamo Bay.”

And not only that, but

“Sarah Dean has used no fewer than four names, each affiliated with an online business, or a Christian ministry, a collection of children’s books, or a crowd-funded charity.” …. “Several of the answers offered by the Deans are like coins in the deep end of a swimming pool, vaguely recognizable but not reachable,” [Billings Gazette reporter Tom] Lutey explained of the encounter.

They also would not confirm that they were married. Questioned, they were apparently unable to provide a wedding date or location. But they have filed the forms to run, and they are not backing down. Both are still running.

Megaera, I don’t see a grudge here (yet), though I do see an awful lot of grift. Maybe you can clarify this – story (for want of a better word. Oh, myth you say?)

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 HERE.

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